20/11/2020 | 15:23:44 Thank you, Sir Roger GALE. It's always nice to see that the Council of Europe allows people to agree, even you and Mr Sergey KISLYAK, lovely. Maybe there are a few remarks on the sunset clause. It is indeed in there because the Bureau of the Assembly has to decide in every instance which mode of convening will be used. So, it is basically a continuous sunset clause in there for the simple reason, again, that the Bureau of the Assembly has to decide at any instance. The outbreak of COVID-19 in... 20/11/2020 | 14:33:37 Dear colleagues, let's start our afternoon session of the standing committee. We've got a number of reports on our agenda, so I hope that we can work on all of them. If not, if we are not able to address a number of reports, they will be postponed and put on the agenda of the plenary session or another session later on. Point 12 of our agenda are "Rules of procedure, immunities and institutional affairs" with rapporteur Mr Frank SCHWABE. The other report is with rapporteur Ms Ingjerd SCHOU... 20/11/2020 | 12:40:15 Okay, the vote is open. Please vote. One minute, please vote. Fifteen seconds. Yeah, we have to keep some suspense here. Okay, the vote is closed. Can I have the result, please? Okay, I see only green, so I am quite.. except if I'm mistaken. No. So I see 26 in favor, no one against and no abstentions. May I say that I'm proud and happy that the Parliamentary Assembly in a unanimous way welcomes the Athens Declaration as well as the toolkit of the Secretary-General. I think this is a great... 20/11/2020 | 12:31:58 Thank you, Ahmet. I do not have any other speakers on my list. Maybe I can make one comment because in our next point we have a draft Declaration on the Parliamentary Contribution. I was present in Athens during the debate. The way I interpret what happened is that a country or a number of countries basically had the idea that by approving the Athens Declaration that they would be perceived or in reality would also approve a number of conventions that they had not yet approved or would not... 20/11/2020 | 11:54:27 Well, thank you for catering to the young ones among us, that's very nice of you Petra. This will be adapted as requested. Thank you. Are there any other remarks? I do not see any. Then the minutes are approved. Again, I make mention of the fact that a mention by a colleague has been made in the bureau yesterday as to this effect. Number nine: we have the references to committees, you have the document. Maybe one remark, in the document you will see that we have reference to reports in the... 20/11/2020 | 11:50:28 Thank you. Before we proceed with the agenda, maybe a few words of introduction. Items four to nine of our Agenda are procedural items. Now this means that only members of the Standing Committee are entitled to take the floor, should they have any comments. Four to nine is procedure so this is basically an issue for the members of the Standing Committee. We have another colleague on board there, I see. I also should remind you that should I vote take place it's only the members of the... 20/11/2020 | 11:37:08 Thank you very much. We've now come to our four last people, colleagues, in order this is Ms Alma ČOLO from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Aleksandr BASHKIN from Russia, Ms Rósa BRYNJÓLFSDÓTTIR from Iceland and Mr Tony LLOYD from the UK, in that order, in this fashion, I have all the different countries on board. We'll see if we have time, I doubt it, but if not, colleagues who did not get the floor now can have written questions, I suppose, to President SPANO, that he will answer in writing. So... 20/11/2020 | 11:09:00 Thank you President Spano for your interesting intervention. We now move to the questions. We first move to the representatives of the five political groups. Please ask for the floor Mr Frank SCHWABE, Mr Aleksander POCIEJ, Mr Olivier BECHT, Sir Roger GALE, Mr Tiny KOX. So, please ask for the floor. After this we will go by three, as we did in the first discussion. We have to limit, unfortunately, really to one hour here. We will have to finish this at 11:00 sharp, if I get it right, or 11:15... 20/11/2020 | 10:52:17 Thank you, Mr Minister. It is always good to see a person with a passion. Why? Because it is only with conviction that we can move forward, and you rightfully stress the fact that we do see a rise of authoritarianism and populism and extremism, and we have to fight against it from the Council of Europe, as from so many other instances, so thank you for your answers. We will see each other again, and as you see, we still have more than I think 12 people wanting to put questions to you, so we... 20/11/2020 | 09:55:52 Thank you Mr Michael ROTH for your interesting and comprehensive statement. You do touch a sensitive point, namely the fact that only meeting by video is not exactly the way that we can in a very efficient way have things move forward, for the simple reason that the essence of political debate is seeing each other physically and being able to persuade colleagues or be persuaded by colleagues, because this is the way that we function. And we do see there is some kind of a video fatigue that...